This blog provides a running commentary on YouTube videos featuring the music of Astor Piazzolla.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Decarisimo at Waldbühne

I have read that Piazzolla didn't write happy music. Not quite true. Decarisimo, a composition he wrote in 1961 to honor the great band leader and composer, Julio Di Caro, is happy music. Perhaps that is the reason that Daniel Barenboim chose to include it in his famous 1998 "Latin Night" concert with the Berlin Philharmonic at Waldbühne. That night was captured on a DVD which has never been available in North or South America. Fortunately, we now get to share a bit of that night in today's video of Decarisimo. It is a spirited arrangement by José Carli, who appears in this video from the concert.

Daniel Barenboim, like Piazzolla, was born in Argentina. Like Piazzolla he was a child prodigy - playing his first concert at age seven. Like Piazzolla, he studied composition and harmony with Nadia Boulanger. Unlike Piazzolla, whose musical home was the club, Barenboim's musical home has always been the concert hall - first as a pianist and for the past forty years as one of the most sought after conductors in the world. He clearly understands and enjoys Piazzolla's music and has recorded it in several contexts. I find no indication that Barenboim ever met Piazzolla but the Azzi/Collier book, Le Grand Tango, does report that Piazzolla knew Daniel's father, Enrique. If true, it is curious their paths never crossed. Certainly both musical giants from Argentina.